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Doek Festival 2018 - This Is Our Music Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam

"This Is Our Music": many sides of the flourishing Amsterdam improv scene were revealed at the 2018 Doek Festival, with well-known musicians and international guests. This event signalled the return of the Amsterdam-based collective Doek to its roots: personal projects by its individual core members. The result is a richly varied program including two nights at the BIMHUIS.

The last few editions of the Doek Festival have been some of the most ambitious events in the history of the collective. The edition dedicated to Anthony Braxton and Tri-Centric Foundation, for example, or the editions that featured projects with the Chicago and Berlin scenes or the project The Present Is Present which featured a large scale collaboration with Amsterdam venues.

The Eric Boeren 4tet is a high-water mark for the Doek collective. Originally inspired by the classic quartets of Ornette Coleman, it has grown over the years to embrace Boeren's own vision more fully, brilliantly blending composition with improvisation by four masterful improvisers.

Another pinnacle of Dutch improvised music, the Ab Baars Trio has existed for nearly 30 years. Far more than just another sax-bass-drums trio, the group creates some of the most strikingly original music of any 'jazz' trio you'll find. While it is led by Ab Baars, there is an incredible freedom given to all members which brings out the best in everyone. It makes perfect sense that Wilbert de Joode would choose this group for 'This is Our Music.'

In 2017, John Dikeman , Luis Vicente and Hugo Antunes were given a residency in Coimbra, Portugal, at the venue Salão Brazil. With four days to record, rehearse and present concerts on two evenings, they had a chance to put together this ensemble. They decided to invite two exemplary musicians from the British scene. Alexander Hawkins, no stranger to the BIMHUIS, is one of the leading young European improvisers and Mark Sanders is an immensely diverse and creative drummer. Together, this ensemble represents everything John Dikeman wants in an improvised music ensemble: sensitivity, spontaneity, deep listening, and an absolute willingness to tear it up.

Jazz combines creativity from the mind, heart, and the gut. It flourishes through structure and uses melody and rhythm to bridge the musician's creativity and the listener's
imagination.
I try to appreciate all forms of music and styles of jazz but find myself drawn to the hot music of the twenties through the early thirties, including its many contemporary
incarnations

Jazz combines creativity from the mind, heart, and the gut. It flourishes through structure and uses melody and rhythm to bridge the musician's creativity and the listener's
imagination.
I try to appreciate all forms of music and styles of jazz but find myself drawn to the hot music of the twenties through the early thirties, including its many contemporary
incarnations. Obscure and forgotten musicians of that period also interest me. I also enjoy Baroque and Classical music; much of that repertoire actually shares jazz's
emphasis on improvisation, creating tension over an underlying ground rhythm, and exciting formal variation.

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